Wednesday, October 5, 2011

October Challenge: Satan's School For Girls

Two things jumped out at me right away about this movie. 1. I am surprised I have never seen this. I swear I had, but I didn't remember a bit of it and the movie I thought I was remembering as SSfG must be something else. 2. 25 year old Kate Jackson was HOT.

Ok despite being an Aaron Spelling made for TV movie, this was better than some of the others I have seen so far. Martha's sister Elizabeth has killed herself and now she wants to find out why. She enrolls under an assumed name at the same school Elizabeth had been at, the Salem School for Girls (unkown if it is the same Salem School mentioned in the Harry Potter books, but let's say yes for fun). She is greeted by fellow students and future Charlie's Angels Cheryl Lass and Kate Jackson. They meet the headmistress and a few of the teachers. Ok only two. And the creepy mystery unfolds. Seems another girl had killed herself recently and Martha begins to look into why. Plenty of very obvious clues are left lying around. The art teacher and his subjective reality and the psych teacher and his rats. A few more suicides and Martha is thinking this not the best place to be.
Long story short, the art teacher is Satan and he is recruiting 8 (odd number) girls to replace the 9 he lost years ago. The school burns down but "Satan" gets the last laugh and fades out while smoking a cigarette.
There is no obvious use of magic here.The girls could be in his thrall due to a psych experiment or any number of mundane explanations. I kinda wish there had been more though. Kate Jack's character, Debbie, mentions having Power (yes with a capital P) but nothing ever comes from that.

There is a remake in 2000 with Kate Jackson as the headmistress and fellow Spelling alum and TV witch Shannon Doherty, but I have not seen that one either. At least the drop the witches down to a more respectable 5.

Not a great movie, but a good one to chill out too.

Tally 5 movies, 5 new (to my surprise)

Of course given this, the remake and fun connection to Harry Potter I HAVE to use this in my games someway. The Salem School for Girls would be a great Witch Girls Adventures location.